In order to know more about the game, GamingBolt caught up with Jonathan Mintz, who is the Lead Designer on Disney: Fantasia Music Evolved. Check out his response below.

Rashid Sayed: Given that rhythm games are a rarity these days, what was the inspiration behind developing Fantasia: Music Evolved? 

Jonathan Mintz: Disney approached Harmonix with an ambitious goal: reimagine Walt Disney’s classic film as a 21^st century interactive experience. We couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that. Harmonix’s goal is to give people new ways to experience and connect with music, and this project was a perfect way to continue that mission.

Rashid Sayed: I find it interesting that Fantasia: Music Evolved is exclusive to Xbox platforms. Was there any specific reason skipping the PlayStation versions? 

Jonathan Mintz: The game was built from the ground up as a motion gaming experience. We really want players to feel like they are physically shaping music and using it to transform worlds. While we’d love to bring the game to more platforms in the future, the Kinect is the best tool for allowing us to realize that vision right now.

"There’s a huge range – everything from classical masterpieces to classic rock, hip-hop to pop. Walt originally intended for Fantasia to grow and change over time, with new music being added over the years. When choosing our soundtrack, we imagined where we might have ended up today if he’d been able to realize that vision."

Rashid Sayed: I am sure you must be aware that Harmonix is going to release Amplitude which will be a PlayStation bound. But it seems that they won’t reach their Kickstarter goal. Considering that they are also developing Fantasia: Music Evolved do you think that the market for rhythm based games is on a decline? 

Jonathan Mintz: Everyone at Harmonix is incredibly grateful to our Kickstarter backers, and the Amplitude team is really looking forward to creating the premier next-gen rhythm-action game. In Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, song performanceis similar to the focused beatmatch play of Amplitude, but it also feels like the active play of something like Dance Dance Revolution. And the interactions in the realms are similar to more experimental games like Electroplanktonor Proteus.So while the core audience for rhythm-action might be small (but dedicated,) I’m hopeful that we’ll find players interested in exploring our uni\que and varied music and gameplay.

Rashid Sayed: The trailers actually gave me the vibes of it being a straight forward dance game but it seems to be a bit more open ended. What can you tell us about that? 

Jonathan Mintz: This is a very tough game to introduce to new people! We’ve spent a long time working on how the game helps you learn to play, but it’s even more challenging to explain it via video or text. Here’s ashort overview: the game invites you to become the new Sorcerer’s Apprentice, learning how to perform a wide variety of great music. Once you demonstrate your skill in basic performance, though, you’ll soon discover how you can remix songs and add new solos to them as you perform. And from there, you’ll gain the ability to explore the realms of Fantasia and create brand-new music with their characters and creatures.

Rashid Sayed: What can you tell us about the different types of music in the game?

Jonathan Mintz: There’s a huge range – everything from classical masterpieces to classic rock, hip-hop to pop. Walt originally intended for Fantasia to grow and change over time, with new music being added over the years. When choosing our soundtrack, we imagined where we might have ended up today if he’d been able to realize that vision.

Rashid Sayed: Tell us about the basic gameplay mechanics. How has the game changed ever since its showing at E3 last year? 

Jonathan Mintz: The game asks players to move their hands in time with musical cues, trying to make them feel like Mickey Mouse conducting the heavens and oceans in the original Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment. The better you do at this basic play, the more musical control you get over the sound of the song. Since E3 last year, we’ve refined the motion detection and feedback, adding and tuning cues to ensure that players know what to do, feel good when they’re succeeding, and really connect with the music in each song and remix.

" Once you discover songs and remixes in the realms, you’ll be able to access a Song Library where you can play multiplayer. Two players can perform a song together, competing for control of the mix and cooperating to record solos."

Rashid Sayed: Can you please explain the concept of ‘overworld’ in Fantasia: Music Evolved? 

Jonathan Mintz: Players will travel to the realms of Fantasia and explore them by moving in front of the Kinect. Using the Muse, a magical orb that lets you reach out and touch the realms, you’ll be able to dive into songs, perform them, and then draw their magic back into the realms. This will transform the realms, opening new hot spots where you can record your own compositions as well as many other surprising musical interactions.

Rashid Sayed: The game is supposed to have co-operative elements. Can you please explain how that will work? 

Jonathan Mintz: Once you discover songs and remixes in the realms, you’ll be able to access a Song Library where you can play multiplayer. Two players can perform a song together, competing for control of the mix and cooperating to record solos.

Rashid Sayed: Fantasia: Music Evolved won’t have a scoring system. How do you plan to reward the player then? 

Jonathan Mintz: Song performance does have a scoring system. Getting high scores will unlock remixes. To get the best possible scores, you’ll need to fully perform every cue and choose the hardest remix each time you have a choice during the song. You’ll earn a point bonus for your longest streak as well. Beyond that, you’ll earn collectibles and find other secrets as you explore the realms.

Rashid Sayed: Can you confirm the resolution and frame rate that Fantasia: Music Evolved will run on the Xbox One? 

Jonathan Mintz: We run at 1080p, 30fps.

Rashid Sayed: Did the development team face any issues due to the eSRAM of the Xbox One? How did you over came the challenges on developing on the Xbox One? 

Jonathan Mintz: Our game was built with the Xbox One in mind, so I don’t believe we encountered any particularly difficult challenges. We were mostly excited to be working with the extra horsepower of the console and the increase fidelity of Kinect for Xbox One.

"We believe that this game offers something genuinely unique, allowing players to experience music in a whole new way. "

Rashid Sayed: Do we have a fix release date for Fantasia: Music Evolved? 

Jonathan Mintz: October 21^st in the US.

Rashid Sayed: Given that Kinect is an important element of Disney Fantasia: Music Evolve, what is your reaction towards Microsoft’s recent announcement of a Kinect-less version? 

Jonathan Mintz: We’re hopeful that it will get more people to check out the Xbox One. Once they get excited about the system, they can always choose to pick up a Kinect and Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved later.

Rashid Sayed: Is there anything else you want to tell our readers about Fantasia: Music Evolved? 

Jonathan Mintz: We believe that this game offers something genuinely unique, allowing players to experience music in a whole new way. We’ve worked hard to live up to Disney’s legacy while also delivering on Harmonix’s mission of giving people amazing gameplay experiences. We’d love for you to try it and see for yourself!

Fantasia: Music Evolved is an upcoming rhythm game under development at Harmonix. GamingBolt was able to get in touch with Jonathan Mintz, Lead Designer of Disney: Fantasia Music Evolved to know more about the game. It’s rather interesting to note that Fantasia: Music Evolved is exclusive to Xbox platforms. We asked Jonathan whether there was any specific reason over skipping the PlayStation versions, especially given that the PlayStation 4 is ahead of Xbox One in sales.

“The game was built from the ground up as a motion gaming experience,” Jonathan explains. He also explained that Kinect was the real reason why they went exclusive with Xbox. “We really want players to feel like they are physically shaping music and using it to transform worlds. While we’d love to bring the game to more platforms in the future, the Kinect is the best tool for allowing us to realize that vision right now.”

Furthermore, Microsoft announced that a Kinect-less Xbox One will be releasing this month and given that Fantasia: Music Evolved uses Kinect, what was their reaction towards this development? Jonathan is hopeful that it will actually help gain sales for the Xbox One.

“We’re hopeful that it will get more people to check out the Xbox One. Once they get excited about the system, they can always choose to pick up a Kinect and Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved later,” he explains.

In related news, the game runs at 1080p and 30 frames per second on the Xbox One. Fantasia: Music Evolved releases on October 21^st in the US. Stay tuned for more news and updates.

Disney Interactive and Harmonix Music Systems have showcased some new aspects for Fantasia: Music Evolved, which include “The Hollow” realm, multiplayer details and details on new songs. Check out “The Hollow” above.

Players will be able to play cooperatively and competitively in Fantasia, with some of the newer songs including David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”, Antonin Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 9 from the New World”, Lorde’s “Royals”, Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” and White Stripes’s “Seven Nation Army”. Players will be able to create new melodies and use remix paths to have the upper hand.

As for The Hollow, it’s essentially a forest with your own melodies serving to create musical mushrooms and guide fairies. It’s whimsical for sure and we’re curious how hard these fairies would be rocking to Seven Nation Army.

Fantasia: Music Evolved will be out this year for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Despite a marked decline in the demand for rhythmic music games in recent years, it is expected to sell well based purely on the Disney label alone. Currently in development exclusively for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Xbox One, the game will make use of the Kinect sensor. Marketed as an interactive sequel to the Walt Disney Classic, Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, the game is expected to arrive at some time in 2014 for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Tracks

Development

While there is no specific date that mentions when Fantasia: Music Evolved started its development cycle, we do know that at some point in 2010, Disney Interactive Studios contacted Harmonix with the initial idea. Then at the top of their game due to the massive success with the Dance Central series, Harmonix were busy trying to create their own next entry into the motion controlled music world. Since they didn’t normally make use of a third party intellectual property (IP) they were initially not open to the offer proposed to them by Disney.

However, at a meeting to discuss the concepts behind the game, there was apparently an instant connection of sorts, the team could see how well that Fantasia, specifically, could work very well with what they already had in the works. The idea behind the game was to give the player a much more important role in influencing the gameplay and music. Since the title is based on a very famous piece of classic animation and music, it would have been simple to have had the player simply stand there and wave their arms around, effectively just sitting in on an interactive ride. But both Disney and Harmonix wanted something more, something tangible. Rather than start from an already stable platform, they went back to Walt Disney’s original production notes instead of using Fantasia as a reference.

The development team working on Fantasia: Music Evolved took a liking to the dream sequence entitled “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, in which the icon Disney mascot, Mickey Mouse is seen controlling the weather and the orchestra with great sweeping powerful gestures, bringing order to the chaos from his perch upon a mountain top, effectively acting as a conductor. This concept of “reaching out” is what helped shape the gameplay and is directly reflected in the gameplay, it was Mickey Mouse in this scene where “magic and the manipulation of music itself were woven into a single act” which became the central pillar around which Fantasia: Music Evolved would be built.

Gameplay

Gamers will be following a story that will be instantly recognisable to any fan of Disney’s Fantasia, the narration that plays throughout the game is directly linked to and makes reference towards the 1940 animated classic. Specifically the segment known as “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. The player will fulfil the role of Yen Sids, (The Sorcerer) new apprentice and it is their task to breathe new life into the worlds that he creates throughout the course of the game. These initially baron worlds are flooded with life as the player moves in rhythm with the music, which is fully licenced.

As the game progresses and the player’s score increases they will unlock certain gestures, presumably something similar to that of an orchestra conductor, that will influence the music and change various elements of its fundamental composition. “In building a gesture system we wanted to give a lot of freedom to people, so it’s not this ‘copy what you see on screen’ thing, which is what we did with Dance Central. Here, you’re moving rhythmically, and we wanted to give players the sense of freedom of expression. The decision behind full body motion rather than relying on a crudely shaped piece of plastic, (see Rock Band instruments for an example) was rooted in drawing inspiration from experiences found in Dance Central, according to Creative Director Matt Boch, “Through our experience with Dance Central, we thought it was really awesome to have people moving along with the music, and that rhythmic connection was really strong,” Boch said.

“So we decided it has to be about the player’s body, it has to be a game where they’re actually moving around space and exploring music through their body.” In a given example, the player traced a line of arrows with her body in time with the rhythm of the song; this well timed movement resulted in additional layers being added to the music in the form of rock, orchestral and brass instrument overlays. Thanks to the implementation of the Kinect sensor the game has a better sense of what the player is doing which is represented on screen as a silhouette, this will then influence objects in the surrounding area when the two come into contact.

Fantasia: Music Evolved is designed around the player having total control, they need not worry about getting high scores or a flawless play through without missing a beat, and this is because unlike previous games from Harmonix, the player cannot fail. Regardless of the amount of feedback given by players, they will never lose.

Tracks

While players are indeed, guaranteed a great selection of music to play with as they proceed through this ambitious title, there is yet to be an actual official track list that gives us an insight into what we can expect. The only titles that have been confirmed thus far are:

• AVICII – “Levels”
• Bruno Mars – “Locked Out Of Heaven”
• Fun. – “Some Nights”
• Kimbra – “Settle Down”
• Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Needless to say it’s a tad underwhelming, but with the game still some way off, there is a great deal of time for this to be updated. There is said to be songs from more than 25 separate artists, with each song having multiple remixes, but unless each artist contributes at least 2 songs, this is still a meagre showing, one that will most likely be improved upon through the release of paid DLC.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Disney and Harmonix have announced Fantasia: Music Evolved for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The game will be released sometimes in 2014.

“In the game, players will enter  Fantasia, selected by the legendary sorcerer Yen Sid to hone their musical and magical prowess as his new apprentice. Fantasia: Music Evolved takes players on an interactive and immersive motion-controlled journey through worlds of music and magic, unleashing their creativity along the way,” the press release states.

The game  will feature tracks from over 25 artists. Each track will have three variations: two remixes and one original.

The confirmed tracks are:

• AVICII – “Levels”
• Bruno Mars – “Locked Out Of Heaven”
• Fun. – “Some Nights”
• Kimbra – “Settle Down”
• Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”

We also have the first video and screenshots from the game. Check it out below and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.